Thursday, February 7, 2013

Culinary Atrocities

German Whiskey blogger Oliver Klimek writes the excellent Dramming blog, which is one of the best whisky blogs around, but with his latest blogging endeavor, he also has one of my favorite food blogs. Culinary Atrocities catalogs the most atrocious food stuffs from our dark culinary past with a concentration on, nay obsession with, Jell-o salads. Klimek even tried to make his own version which appears suitably atrocious. The atrocities don't end with Jell-o though, there's spam, souffle and other dishes to make you cringe.

This is good stuff, but I have to wonder if there is some anti-American bias in Oliver's posts. Sure, America has a shady and embarrassing culinary past, but as someone whose grandparents were from Germany, I was definitely subjected to some culinary atrocities that were strictly continental. The U.S. may be an easy target, but I hereby challenge Oliver to not ignore his own atrocious culinary heritage.

Good point, Sku and of course a valid objection. The reason why I started this little fun project is indeed my Amazing Discovery of the jello salad in the unfathomed depths of the culinary branch of the internet. When you look at websites featuring vintage recipe book pictures and advertising, there is hardly any foreign material to be found. Which makes me wonder just like you if there aren't any continental atrocities around.

Oh yes, Germany is not free from culinary atrocities either. I was born into the end of the Dark Ages of German cuisine and have seen stunning pictures in receipe books. But I all objectivity, the US are the mother of atrocious food and much of what you find in Europe is inspired by this 'culture'. The jello salad remains an uniquely American deviation, though.

Please bear with me that as a newbie 'food blogger' I stuck to the available material to kick-start the blog. But I have already sourced some potentially atrocious German material that I hope will be able to present in the future.